Tuesday, August 31, 2010

DIY Hurricanes

I had lusted over these hurricanes from Williams-Sonoma Home for some time, but couldn't physically bring myself to spend $60 for just one.

So I started searching the web for "DIY Hayden Hurricane", looking for a potential substitute option.

I know a thousand people have made these, but the first person I was inspired by was Emily (great name! :) )over at DecorChick earlier this summer. Her dollar store hurricanes were so simple, and so cute! It was one of those projects I'd been meaning to get to, but never did.

Well, after doing some rearranging and "shopping the house" for a couple updates in other rooms, I was left with a hole on top of my shelves in the office. I couldn't find an existing "something" already in my house that was working, and I wasn't in the mood to go spend a lot of money and buy something. Ding Ding! DIY Hurricanes to the rescue!

I hopped over to the Dollar Store, and instead of buying the cylinders like she did, I found they also had cylinders with fluted tops - perfect! So, I opted for those. I paired them with a couple curvy, bubbly glass taper holders that I found on the clearance shelf by accident at Menards, of all places. Who knew Menards was such a hotbed for Home Decorating? ;)There's nothing wrong with the cut glass taper holders at the dollar store that most people are using, but they're not my style. These suited me and my decor just a bit better.

I used hot glue to adhere the bases to the bottoms of my cylinders. With most projects I typically use Gorilla Glue [which is awesome], but this time I wanted a less-permenant option. With hot glue, I get a good adhesive, it's clear (and disguised by a candle or vase filler), and if I want to seperate the base from the holder at some point in the future, it's easy to peel off without damaging either piece.

I've got to find some books to prop up the guy on the left, but for now he teeters on birch slices. I'm not patient enough to wait until things are properly styled to snap an "after". :)From start to finish, this project took literally 3.5 minutes. Seriously. And my shelf is happy!